As an app developer, you go on two very important journeys with every app you build. The first one is the journey to completion—the day your app launches. It’s a big moment, but it’s only the beginning of the process. The second journey begins immediately after launch—it’s the journey of growing your user base and revenue, and making ongoing improvements that keep users engaged and delighted. To do this, you need to know who is using your app, and how they’re using your app.

What if we told you there was a great tool that would enable you to do exactly that?

Firebase Analytics is a free and unlimited analytics solution that helps you learn who your users are and how they interact with your app. Once you add Firebase Analytics code into your Android or iOS app, you can use the data you gather to guide business decisions that will improve your app’s performance and grow your users. It’s a tool that puts incredible power in your hands, and we’re really excited for you to learn how to use it!

Ever wondered when the optimal time is to show an advertisement? Firebase Analytics can tell you that! The automatically-collected user demographic data that you get through Firebase Analytics can help you optimize engagement by sending notifications at the right times for your specific users.

Are your users filling shopping carts but not purchasing? Firebase Analytics can help! Adding Firebase Analytics to your app helps you determine whether your users’ behaviors match your goals, and helps you see whether tweaks you make are helping or hurting.

Are players turning away from your game because your levels are too hard to beat? Use Firebase Analytics to find out! With Firebase Analytics you can track the number of tries it takes users to defeat a level—or see how many never do.

We’ve partnered with analytics experts from Google to build this 2-day interactive course, and you won’t need any Firebase or analytics experience to enroll. Through a combination of videos and quizzes—and using real data produced by a live app—you’ll learn how to use Firebase Analytics along with Firebase Crash Reporting, Firebase Remote Config, and Firebase Dynamic Links to improve your app and add more happy users.

By the end of the course, you’ll have a working understanding of digital analytics, confidence in navigating the Firebase console, and the skills to add Firebase Analytics to your Android or iOS app.

Instructors for the course include Firebase team members Steve Ganem and Todd Kerpelman, Udacity instructors Jessica Lin and Kate Rotondo (that’s me), and course developers Jennifer Person and Daniel Mai. As practicing developers, we know firsthand that user bases don’t grow themselves. You need the power of analytics, and Firebase is an incredible solution.

These courses are also included in our Android Developer and iOS Developer Nanodegree programs, so for those of you pursuing a full immersion developer education with Udacity, you’ll be learning Firebase Analytics too.

Whether your app is still in development or already on the App Store, begin the journey to improve your app’s performance today with Firebase Analytics!

Kate Rotondo

Kate Rotondo is an iOS Content Developer at Udacity, and an award-winning mobile developer. Kate has spoken internationally (O’Reilly Fluent, Mobile Central Europe), co-wrote Adobe AIR in Action, and has taught interactive development at General Assembly and RISD|CE. Kate also hosts Motherboard Podcast (http://motherboardpodcast.com) and is based in San Francisco, CA.